About

Make the road a happier place. The road can often feel like a hostile place full of traffic jams and miscommunication. We're here to change that! MotorMood is an accessory for your car which lets you say thanks to other drivers at night using a remote controlled light-up happy face in your rear window.

Everything is designed to be safe, simple, beautiful, and easy to use. Oh, and did we mention it's also a lot of fun?

Just a single push of the button. A single push of the remote button lights up the happy face for 6 seconds before it automatically turns off.

As you can see, it's ridiculously easy to use and looks great.

Choose from 3 colors. Get a blue, pink, or green MotorMood with a matching remote. There is also a red face for certain jurisdictions which require it, scroll down to the "Legal Compliance" section to learn more.

The three partners Jesse, Alex, and Kina met at a Startup Weekend event in 2013. The fourth partner Arman joined a few months later. Over the last two years they've been hard at work to bring MotorMood to the public.

Arman Bastani, Lead Engineer. Arman brings 25 years of electrical, mechanical, and software engineering to MotorMood. His 2,500 square foot prototyping lab in Costa Mesa specializes in the Internet of Things, and he has close ties to plastic injection molding facilities in China.

Jesse Kramer, President. Jesse is founder, president, and lead designer at MotorMood. He's worked as a UXUI designer for large companies, agencies, and startups including DIRECTV, Coalition Technologies, and Rap Rebirth. He also studied Business Entrepreneurship at USC's Lloyd Greif Center in Los Angeles.

Alex Sewell, Vice President. Alex is vice president, and lead of operations. His background includes work with startups across several industries including publishing, e-commerce, and personal care. Alex specializes in supply chain management, research, and financial projections.

Kina De Santis, Marketing Director. Kina leads marketing at MotorMood, as well as public relations, pitches, and event coordination. Her background includes years of experience in her family's restaurant business. She also heads Real Office Centers' ROC Edu program and is an active advocate and organizer for Orange County's startup ecosystem.

MotorMood uses a proprietary light guide display to create a beautiful, high quality image on the road. Three specifically placed LEDs fire light into a substrate with tiny divots, which distribute the light across the product's surface for an evenly lit appearance. The brightness has been carefully optimized for nighttime use so that it's bright and vibrant, but does not interfere with visibility or safety.

PCB and LED layer. The PCB (printed circuit board) contains the electronics necessary to receive the wireless signal from the remote and light up the face. Part of this are three white LEDs (light emitting diodes) positioned at the base of the PCB which fire light into the layers above.

Reflective backing. The reflective backing is made from a high gloss plastic material called mylar. It helps ensure a bright, vibrant display with high color contrast.

Light guide. The aforementioned light guide is a polycarbonate substrate with tiny divots arranged in a proprietary pattern. The divots distribute the LEDs' light across the face for an equally illuminated image with minimal hotspots.

Face overlay. The face overlay is a thin sheet of transparent plastic with the MotorMood face silk screened on top. This overlay is removable so you can swap in different colors and future faces.

Our plastic injection molding, circuit board printing, and product assembly will take place in a factory in Shenzhen, China. We are working with a contract manufacturer called PJ88 (based in Hong Kong) to facilitate the process. PJ88 has 30 years of experience in manufacturing consumer products throughout East Asia.

We plan on delivering by December 21st! Just in time for the holidays :)

Of course manufacturing delays can occur, and we want to be transparent, so our worst case delivery date is February 10th. We will keep you updated regularly throughout the manufacturing process on any new developments. To learn more about possible delays scroll down to the "Risks and challenges" section.

The idea for MotorMood came out of our founder Jesse's frustration with commuting and his desire to make driving a more enjoyable experience.

Jesse grew up in Los Angeles, a place famous for beautiful weather and notorious for long slow commutes. Driving there and in many places around world can be a dehumanizing and isolating experience. We’re surrounded by people and yet we’re separated by glass, steel, distance, and speed. All too often this brings out the worst in drivers. But every now and then there are good Samaritans who make gracious gestures.

It occurred to Jesse that if more people said thank you, drivers would feel encouraged to drive more politely and the road would be a more hospitable place. That’s when the idea for MotorMood was born: a simple but powerful device to share good will when the usual hand wave isn’t visible.

Stare at the happy face above for 5 seconds. Seriously count to 5... Guess what? Science proves that you're actually feeling happier now than you were before.

A study at Australia's Flinders University in Adelaide showed that “the pattern of brain activity triggered by looking at an emoticon smiley face is now the same as when someone sees a real smiling human face." (1)

A separate study in The journal Social Neuroscience showed that the visual perception of faces activates “nonvisual somatosensory areas that contribute to emotion." (2)

Finally, a study at the University of Bristol in England demonstrated that aggression and anger are reduced in teens who are exposed to happy faces. (3)

In short, the ubiquitous use of emoticons on smartphones and the internet, as well as innate biological associations have created a positive conditioned response in consumers when they see a happy face. MotorMood leverages this conditioned response to diffuse road rage situations, humanize driving, and create a happier experience on the road.

These goals will be become reward options once we hit the associated funding level.

Inventory. The MotorMoods we send you will be directly funded by the proceeds of this Kickstarter campaign!

Plastic injection molding. Mass manufacturing requires expensive steel molds to be made to form liquid plastic into casings for MotorMood.

Production refinements. Certain technical aspects of the product's mechanical and electrical design will be fine tuned for production.

Additional intellectual property (IP). We've got lots of great ideas up our sleeve we want to protect so that we can bring them to you!

Other. Starting a business is expensive! A portion of the funds will go toward the business, legal, and e-commerce costs associated with getting you our product.

Not to scale

Face display diameter: 4.8"

Face dimensions (w/o adhesive pads): 5.5" x 5.5" x 1"

Remote dimensions (w/o clip): 1.5" x 1.2" x 2.6"

Since day one, safety has been at the top of our list of priorities. That's why we've designed MotorMood to be easy to use and easy on the eyes.

Remote. The remote is positioned conveniently on the sun visor which means you never have to take your eyes off the road to use it. Furthermore, pressing the button is even easier than turning on your car's air conditioning or adjusting the radio.

Face. The face has been optimized for night time use, meaning that it's vibrant enough to be seen at a distance, but not so bright that it will distract or blind other drivers.

We've worked with law enforcement to make sure our product is street legal and safe. However, certain jurisdictions require all rear facing lights to be red, so each MotorMood will ship with a red face overlay. This red overlay must used with MotorMood in the aforementioned jurisdictions. Therefore, to make sure you are in compliance, we recommend you check your local and state laws before installation and use of the MotorMood product.

Risks and challenges

We've worked very hard to bring this project to Kickstarter and we're confident we'll deliver by December 21st. Of course, there are always risks that may cause delay.

-------

Production Optimizations

As MotorMood is readied for mass production, there will be some small changes made to improve the final product. Pre-production prototypes based on final production designs will also be built to validate our product's functionality and aesthetic across thousands of units. Any changes we make will be for the benefit of you, the customer, and we'll let you know exactly why they are made.

Tooling

Creating the tooling to manufacture a physical product requires time and precision. There is typically a 60 day lead time and this is where delays can occur. To minimize this, we're using tooling partners our engineer has worked with before and who have a track record for on time delivery.

Fulfillment

Sometimes certain things can't be planned for: a supplier misses a deadline, a machine breaks down, or a shipment gets lost. These things could cause delay. To minimize this possibility we'll enter the manufacturing stage with at least one back-up supplier for each component pre-located, and our contract manufacturer will help ensure good communication with our suppliers and factories.

-------

Our Commitment

We know that backing a brand new product comes with a mix of excitement and anxiety. That's why we're committed to delivering on time and to keeping you updated throughout the production process. We'll be working with manufacturers who have years of experience delivering excellent products in large quantities. There will no doubt be surprises along the road, but any obstacles will be overcome by our team's internal knowledge, the outside expertise of our supply partners, and our commitment to you.

-------

Your Pledge

Any pledge amount brings us one step closer to our goal. Help us make the road a happier place by clicking the "Back This Project" button at the top of the page, or by helping us spread the word by sharing this page on Facebook and Twitter.

Support

Select this reward

Pledge $1 or more
About $1.00

Thank you! Your help at any level brings MotorMood one step closer to a car near you. For all backers at ALL levels we'll put your name on a thank you page, and keep you informed with all the MotorMood updates.